In the early hours of 13 May, dozens of unofficial adverts appeared across north London in response to Tony Blair’s comments on net zero policy. Campaign group Climate Resistance installed the adverts to call out Blair for being bankrolled by billionaires and petrostates.
Tony Blair’s climate denialism: ban the billionaire lapdog
The adverts read “Ban billionaire-backed Blair” and accuse him of being a “billionaire lapdog”:
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The posters list his charges as: “lied about Iraq’s WMDs”, “destabilised the entire Middle East” and “ecocide and climate genocide”, amongst more:
Activists carried out the direct action brandalism against Tony Blair at multiple bus stops across the city:
A hotbed of fossil fuel funding
The Tony Blair Institute has worked with fossil fuel companies and petrostates, including signing a multimillion pound deal with the Saudi government. Larry Ellison, tech-billionaire and Trump ally with a carbon footprint 539 times higher than the average consumer, donated £200m to the TBI.
Blair has long fought for the interests of corporations, namely the fossil fuel and tech industries, by pitting net-zero policies against progressive causes.
The richest 1% own more wealth than 95% of humanity. Meanwhile, they are responsible for more emissions than two thirds of the global population.
According to YouGov, over half of Brits believe billionaires should not exist and, according to the most recent survey published this year, 78% support a wealth tax. This includes the support of 66% of those with assets over £10m.
Tony Blair Institute keeps ‘getting in the way’ of the UK’s green transition
Sam Simons from Climate Resistance said:
Net Zero is not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. The sooner we make the transition to a green economy, the more lives we will save. It isn’t green transition we can’t afford: it’s Tony Blair and his billionaire chums who keep hoarding more wealth than 95% of us and torching our planet with their luxury lifestyles. It’s time to tax them out of existence and use those resources to fund climate action.
Net zero is a key opportunity for the UK to escape the profiteering of fossil fuel giants and create thousands of green jobs in the process. But billionaire-backed misinformation campaigns and climate denying think-tanks like the Tony Blair Institute keep getting in the way, slowing down the UK’s transition and fueling the cost of living crisis for their own gain.
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By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.